Ex-Argentina officer recants on charges

Monday, January 17, 2005 · Last updated 7:35 p.m. PT

Ex-Argentina officer recants on charges

By MAR ROMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER


Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon steps from his car outside Madrid's National Court Tuesday in this Jan. 18, 2000 file photo. Garzon indicted eight people on terrorism charges Monday, Jan. 17, 2005 saying they provided logistical help and false documents for suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks. (AP Photo/Paul White, FILE)
MADRID, Spain -- A former Argentine navy officer who once said he had thrown dissidents to their death from airplanes during his country's "dirty war" recanted Monday at his trial on charges of genocide, torture and terrorism.

Adolfo Scilingo, 58, first made the admission when he came to Spain voluntarily in 1997 to testify before National Court Judge Baltasar Garzon, who since the late 1990s has led a probe into human rights violations by military regimes in Argentina and Chile.

Scilingo, who had no promise of immunity, said he had thrown 30 drugged, naked dissidents from planes into the Atlantic Ocean during two trips known as "death flights." Garzon jailed him, but Scilingo recanted.

On Monday he again denied taking part in such flights. On a hunger strike since mid-December, he said he had taken most of the information from press publications and spoken to Garzon because he wanted to trigger an inquiry.

"I testified so it would all be investigated. I said a lot of nonsense so it would be investigated," he said. "I wanted to raise a stink."
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Spain%20Argentina%20Dirty%20War

Related D.U. link with more information on this subject from yesterday:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1154404

:eyes: